The Way of Jesus

Living a Spiritual and Ethical Life

Renowned poet and novelist Jay Parini’s The Way of Jesus is a book for progressive Christians and spiritual seekers who struggle, as Parini does, with some of the basic questions about human existence: its limits and sadnesses, and its possibilities for awareness and understanding.

Part guide to Christian living, part spiritual autobiography, The Way of Jesus is Jay Parini’s exploration of what Jesus really meant, his effort to put love first in our daily lives. Called “one of those writers who can do anything” by Stacy Schiff in the New York Times Book Review, Parini—a lifelong Christian who has at times wavered and questioned his beliefs—recounts his own efforts to follow Jesus’s example, examines the contours of Christian thinking, and describes the solace and structure one can find in the rhythms of the church calendar. Parini’s refreshingly undogmatic approach to Christian thinking incorporates teachings from other religions, as well as from poets and other writers who have helped Parini along his path to understanding.

“Accessible and engaging, Jay Parini’s The Way of Jesus is a cross between a memoir and a travel diary, except the landscape he is exploring is his own soul. The compelling spiritual narrative that results is informed by insight, personal reflection, and wide reading. In his own words, it is all about resurrection—now.”—The Right Reverend Robert Atwell, Bishop of Exeter

“For two millennia, the figure of Jesus has haunted the imagination of spiritual seekers around the world, including many great writers, philosophers, and theologians. It might seem there could be nothing fresh to say about him. Yet in each generation, thoughtful observers find new meaning in his life and teachings, as Jay Parini does in this compelling account. A poet as well as a scholar, Parini delves into the history of the faith he espouses and into the mystery at the core of existence. ‘Jesus was first and foremost a teacher,’ he tells us. The same could be said of the man who wrote this lucid, candid, eloquent book.”—Scott Russell Sanders, author of Earth Works: Selected Essays

“Jay Parini’s The Way of Jesus is at once learned and down to earth; rueful at one moment and joyous at the next. Above all, this is the author’s own story—dispatches from an authentic, ongoing quest for a more vital and spirit-filled life. Its most memorable elements, for me, are its eloquent meditations on the ecclesiastical year and its culmination in an arresting reading of Eliot’s Four Quartets.”—John Elder, author of Reading the Mountains of Home